Stock Market News For Feb 11, 2020

Benchmarks closed in the green on Monday led by solid gains in technology shares, as factories in China returned to business ignoring the coronavirus outbreak.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) rose 174.31 points or 0.6%, to close at 29,276.82 and the S&P 500 rose 24.38 points or 0.7% to close at of 3,352.09. While, the Nasdaq Composite Index closed at 9,628.39, gaining 107.88 points or 1.1%. The fear-gauge CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) decreased 0.5% to close at 14.97. Advancing issues outnumbered declining one for a 1.50-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 1.46-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq favored advancers.

How Did the Benchmarks Perform?

As the news of factories reopening floated in the market, investors regained confidence and that helped stocks to rally and expect energy, financial and materials that ended in the red. Meanwhile, consumer discretionary immerged to be the largest percentage gainer out of all the 11 major sectors in the S&P 500.

Overall, the S&P 500 index recorded 46 new 52-week highs and 4 new lows. On the other hand, Nasdaq recorded 105 new highs and 96 new lows.

Chinese Factories Slowly Get Back to Business

Coronavirus death toll has now risen to 908 with more than 40,171 confirmed cases per the China’s health ministry’s report on Monday. The widespread of this virus epidemic had led to closure of Chinese factories, leading to economic slowdown and disruption in global supply chains. Especially for products that rely on Chinese manufacturers.

But Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) on Monday reported that its Shanghai factory had resumed production leading the company’s shares to rise 3.1%. Additionally, Foxconn resumed factory output with 10% of its workforce, this helped Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares to climb 0.5%.

Shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) , a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company also got a boost from the news and soared 2.6% higher yesterday. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Though discovery of new cases in the countries beyond China keeps the World Health Organization worried, news of factories reopening also boosted companies with global presence and helped the Nasdaq and S&P 500 hit new records.

The Dow was lifted by the Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) and Microsoft Corporation’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) gain of 2.4% and 2.6%, respectively. Additionally, Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) and Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) added more than 1.5% each, helping the Dow recover after falling more than 200 points on Friday.

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